Discovering my Mission
By Father Apolinar Samboni
When you are in times of crisis you ask yourself, “What is the purpose of my life? What is my mission that God wants me to pursue in this world? One would generally think that mission involves traveling to a distant land to preach the gospel. That is the dilemma, most are not in a position to give up their work, family, culture, even the food they are accustomed to, to go out on their mission. In this context, pursuing a mission seems too risky and even impossible to perform.
But if you change your perspective about it, then things would not be so complicated. For example, I invite you to take a look at your past. Of course, not for you to complain or feel guilty for what you did. Take your time to look at your past without judging whether it was right or wrong. Simply observe all your achievements, your happy moments, the people you met and also your moments of sadness. When you carefully look at your most painful moments, you discover that there was something more than pain.
Those tribulations did not kill you, nor made you weak. On the contrary, they strengthened you; you learned new strategies to face them, even if many times you did not even find solutions. However, those moments helped you grow in many aspects of your life. You went ahead even though you did not get what you expected. In many cases, your loved ones are no longer at your side – they moved on, or departed to eternity, or maybe they did not care about you. 0bviously, you felt abandoned, frustrated and discouraged.
Nowadays, you could look at life more calmly, draw your own conclusions and teachings. Perhaps, you consider that you wasted your time worrying about something that was out of your control. The best it would have been to accept and move on. But the truth is that you did not see things as you see them today. You did not have the experience you have today.
Take your time to discover what the purpose of those sufferings were, because everything that happens in your life has a purpose, nothing happens by accident. God always has a plan for you. Through those difficult circumstances and people who are close to you, God transforms everything unpleasant and difficult into a means to achieve your conversion. He simply wants to give you a mission. Even if you do not believe it, you learned and drew your own conclusions. They are tools that help you to serve others.
After your life experiences, you are ready to help others. When you are able to forgive those who hurt you, accept things as they happened, approach God through prayer, your works of charity, and your service. Dear reader, I invite you to be aware that your problems are not God’s punishment. They are opportunities that God gives you to grow in your spiritual life. It is the opportunity that God gives you to find the purpose of your life serving God through our neighbor. Jesus himself tells us: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35b)
